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grabbed from greenforest_elf

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Coffee for a better cause

Posted in australian_left by fliboing




Gay and Lesbian Equality (GALE) are currently running a campaign to educate the public about the unsafe and ethically unsound practices of Mercy Ministries and to encourage Gloria Jeans to change their funding agreement.

Mercy Ministries deceive the public by promoting themselves as a refuge for distressed young women suffering from eating disorders, drug addiction, unplanned pregnancies, depression and other psychological issues - by using ineffective faith-based healing and religious indoctrination rather than medically approved psychiatric treatment.

Mercy Ministries are also staunchly homophobic and anti-choice, giving young women misleading information about abortion and running 'conversion' programs similar to those previously seen in the practices of the Hillsong Church's 'ex-gay'movement 'Living Waters.'

Gloria Jeans coffee chain is an active sponsor of Mercy Ministries - donating several hundred thousand dollars a year to the Hillsong-run charity through their 'coffee for a cause' campaigns, where 50c from every beverage sold goes towards Mercy Ministries.

Gloria Jeans has recently attempted to distance themselves from Mercy Ministries - stating that they do not own the women's refuge. However - it seems that Peter Irvine, the co-founder of Gloria Jeans is on the board of directors of Mercy Ministries - and is also a member of the Hillsong Church (as are many of the staff at MM.) The Mercy Ministries donation boxes are also mandatory in every single Gloria Jeans branch.

This campaign is not aimed at Gloria Jeans themselves - rather, we hope to have them to redirect their funding to legitimate organisations that have proven and safe techniques for helping young people in crisis.

You can also find out more, plus find links to other media reports about Mercy Ministries at the Campaign Website or call 0414425365 (Gay And Lesbian Equality line)

(and, if you are an intarwebz geek like me...we have a Facebook!

The Coffee for a Better Cause website has a pdf version of the postcard, which can be printed off, filled out and either sent back to GALE, or directly to the Gloria Jeans Sydney HQ. (NOTE: These cards were designed so that many of them could be sent in bulk, rather than mailed individually to save on postage.) The postcard-petition can be found here